Electrosurgery is surgery performed by electrical methods. Its development has been driven by the clinical need to control bleeding during surgical procedures. While heat has been used medically to control bleeding for thousands of years, the use of electricity to produce heat in tissue has only been in general use since the mid 1920's, and in flexible endoscopy since the 1970's. Electrosurgery offers at least one unique advantage over mechanical cutting and thermal application: the ability to cut and coagulate tissue at the same time. This advantage makes it the ideal surgical tool for the gastroenterologist.
Electrosurgical Generators provide the high frequency electrical energy required to perform electrosurgery and some of these are equipped with an option to use argon gas enchanced electrosurgery. Argon gas enchanced or Argon Plasma Coagulation (APC) has been in long use in the operating room setting and is used intermittently, usually for parenchymal organ surgeries. The apparatus are typically large, heavy and cumbersome systems as shown in FIG. 1. The electrosurgical apparatus has a console system 11 mounted on a cart. Also located on the cart is a large gas canister 13, particularly an argon gas canister, that is coupled to the console to allow a user to perform argon plasma coagulation using the apparatus as is well known. Because the apparatus is so large, heavy and cumbersome, it is difficult to move from one location to another and thus tends to remain near or in one operating room.
About 10 years ago, argon plasma equipped electrosurgery systems were finally adapted to be able to be used in flexible endoscopic procedures of the gut and lung. This required systems with a low flow rate of argon, and long, flexible accessories suitable for these closed procedures. APC is an ideal therapy for the blood rich gut and lung, and its use in flexible endoscopy has increased dramatically. However, when the old operating room argon equipped electrosurgery generators were modified for flexible endoscopy use, little was done to change the overall configuration of the apparatus. This is a disadvantage because flexible endoscopy is often done in multiple room outpatient areas where the lack of mobility of the current units becomes a limiting factor in which and how many, patients are able to receive, and benefit from, APC treatment.